Woman reflects on ‘funny trauma’ around father’s breakdancing career

Comedian recalls on TikTok how her father previously went viral for his dancing moves

A woman has candidly reflected on her “funny trauma” of her father’s viral breakdancing career.

Madi Hart posted a recent video to her TikTok to open about her relationship with her father, Ben Hart, who first went viral in 2018 when he started his dancing career in his sixties. She started off by noting that she had trauma that could “actually be funny”, before claiming that her father left his family for his career.

“My dad abandoned my family when I was five years old. That is a wife and four kids,” she said. “He abandoned us and then pursued amateur breakdancing. And he got really good.”

She went on to recall how her father became a “D-list celebrity”, noting that he was the “oldest actively competing breakdancer in the world”. She continued to describe how her father, who went by the stage name Beni-Hana, went “super viral”, before even showcasing how he performed on Good Morning America in 2018.

Madi then poked fun at how her father wasn’t necessarily involved in her life, due to his breakdancing career. “This guy wouldn’t pay my medical bills,” she said, with a laugh.

However, she still praised her father’s moves on the dance floor, adding: “The worst part, dang it, he’s good. He should not be able to move his body like that. It’s like impossible. It’s beautiful.”

She also claimed that Ben and his now-ex didn’t have “split custody” of their four children when he went off to pursue his viral dancing career. She then shared another quip about her relationship with her father growing up.

“He may not have paid for some of my medical bills growing up, but he did give me this breakdancing merchandise,” she said, while showing off a T-shirt of her father dancing on his head, along with his stage name, “Benihana”.

Madi still noted that she occasionally talks to her father, as she shared a text from March, in which he asked if he’d missed her birthday. According to the screenshots of the texts, he also reached out in April to send a video of him breakdancing.

The comedian emphasised her amusement about how her father pursued his career, concluding: “If you have funny trauma, like actual funny, ha ha trauma, I need to hear it.”

She also defended her father in the caption, writing: “plz don’t bully him btw, u just have to laugh!!”

Madi’s video has quickly gone viral, with more than 3.6m views, as of 15 February. In the comments, many people have praised her father’s dance moves, while poking fun at his apparent decision to leave his family.

“Calling him breakdancing DAD had to have been a low blow,” one wrote, while another added: “LMAOOOOOOO benihana unfortunately goes so crazy.”

A third wrote: “The craziest thing is that... he could have stayed with the family and still did that lol.”

Some people also shared their own experiences of “funny trauma”, with reality star Chrishell Stause even commenting: “I had to be my moms boss at Dairy Queen when I was 17 and had to fire her for smoking while working the drive thru.”

After the video went viral on TikTok, Ben shared a 10 minute follow-up response on X, in which he addressed that he loves his daughter and thought that they “get along great”. However, he said that he still needed to make some “corrections,” noting that as Madi was five when he got divorced, so he could understand why she felt like he was “abandoning” the family.

“One day I was living there, the next I wasn’t,” he said, before claiming that when he and his wife split, he moved to a house that was only a mile away from his family. He also clarified that he did pay her daughter’s medical bills, before specifying that he also gave his ex-wife child support and alimony payments. He then explained that after he got divorced, he still set aside money for his children to go to college.

He addressed that while Madi never called him “a deadbeat dad,” people in the comments of her video had been saying that. He also added that Madi never knew how much he was paying his ex-wife, since she was only a child at time. He then acknowledged how he saw his children often when they were growing up, adding: “No abandonment, just divorce.”

After noting that he was “70 per cent” at fault for the divorce and that he “didn’t regret” marrying Madi’s mother, he clarified that he didn’t abandon the family for breakdancing. He specified that he had already established his own career in advertising before he actually took up breakdancing “for fun”.

He concluded that while Madi’s video is true from her perspective, it wasn’t entirely accurate in his opinion. However, he still noted that her video made a good movie plot, so he encouraged Madi to write about it. “I love you, Madi,” he said. “You’re very creative and talented. Keep doing exactly what you’re doing.”

The Independent has contacted Madi and Ben Hart for comment.

Back in 2018, Ben Hart first went viral for his breakdancing moves, with one Instagram video of him receiving nearly 40,000 views. At the time, he also spoke to The Wall Street Journal about what got him interested in breakdancing in the first place, noting: “The first time I watched a competition I was in awe of the athleticism. I was intimidated to try it.”

However, he also shared that after one year of breakdancing, he saw changes to his physical health, noting that he lost 30 pounds. “It’s like non-stop sprinting,” he said. “It’s more dance than sport, but with an athletic component that is very dynamic and explosive.”